New York State Association of County Clerks 2013 Position Statement

The New York State Association of County Clerks (NYSACC) has represented all 62 elected or appointed County Clerks within the State for over 75 years. Many County Clerks are responsible for filing pistol or revolver license records. The recent New York State gun legislation, and proposed chapter amendments, has potential impacts to the County Clerk’s role when administrating the filing of pistol or revolver license records. NYSACC believes the following requests are necessary to follow for the safety and wellbeing of our residents:

NYSACC opposes any effort to make the county government responsible for now statutory five year recertification process. Any shift of this responsibility from the State Police to the county government would amount to an unfunded mandate on county taxpayers.

NYSACC opposes any effort to shift responsibility to county government regarding the rifle registry that is detailed in the Governor’s SAFE act. Such a change would amount to an unfunded mandate on county taxpayers.

NYSACC opposes the imposition of any fees on New York State gun owners to finance the new provisions of the SAFE act.

Any costs associated with the implementation of the SAFE act must be borne by the State, not the local counties.

County Clerks support the continuation of the Pistol Permit Application, Amendments and files should be maintained at the county level.

County Clerks stress the importance of communication and transferring of information between the County Clerks, the State Police, NYS Mental Health and OCA.

Recognizing the fluid and quick changing nature of potential legislation on gun control, the Executive Officers of NYSACC are hereby authorized to issue a letter of opposition for any bill that attempts to enact the above mention actions. This authority shall expire on December 31, 2013.

There is financial concerns for the clerks as well as the legal owners of weapons the only one who does not have a financial concern is the thief who stole the weapons, bought them illegally out of state and are using them for criminal purposes. The clerks are correct, the burden is unjustified on those who legally went through the process of obtaining a pistol permit legally.